Renovating a hair salon to an insurance office is no easy task, but for General Insurance Services, the task was worth the effort. The company celebrated the opening of their latest endeavor, the transformation of the building on Lincolnway in Valparaiso, which finally brought the company home.

“We’re grateful to be here and to plant our flag,” Craig Menne, President and CEO of GIS, said. “Owning property within the community makes us that much more invested.”

The community gathered on Wednesday evening at the new office building for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“We’ve struggled to find our home here in Valparaiso, and even once we found it, the obstacles of rehabbing an old building came to life,” said Stephanie Domazet, Account Executive at GIS. “The fact that we’re here celebrating this is a testament to our commitment to the growth of this community. We’re so excited to finally find where we belong.”

The building features a completely revamped interior that highlights General Insurance Services’ appreciation of Valparaiso’s unique culture. After transforming the spa rooms of the previous hair salon into office spaces for the account executives, General Insurance Services looks to their future within Valparaiso.

“It’s a beautiful space. This building is a commitment to the community,” Menne said. “We wanted to honor what has been here.”

General Insurances Services began their search for their permanent home nearly two years ago, hoping to find and renovate the perfect space that contributes to the downtown Valparaiso atmosphere.

“It’s been a long road to find what we like to call our home in Valparaiso,” Kara Moon, Marketing Coordinator of GIS, said. “Valpo is a growing, vibrant area in Northwest Indiana. This is our forever home, and we’re very excited about it.”

With the support of the Valparaiso community and, alongside members of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce and the Duneland Chamber of Commerce, General Insurances Services and attendees cheered as Domazet cut the ribbon at the new office building.

“I’d like to thank Larsen-Danielson, Burke Constanza, the Duneland Chamber, the Valpo Chamber, my partners, all the employees who put up with so much during this process, and all of you for making the community what it is,” Domazet said. “We are so very excited to be on this journey, and so proud to be part of a community that we want to give back to and that we want to grow our families in.”

The company’s presence in downtown Valparaiso allows them to better pursue their mission in the Region, to secure the future of the communities they serve.

“We want to contribute to Valparaiso to make a community where one day, our kids might want to raise their kids,” Menne said. “It sounds weird to say that insurance can do that, but in reality, it can in the sense of providing protection. If we’re dealing with business clients, non-profits, government entities, or schools, we can, through our risk management, help keep them safe and save money. Those are dollars that they can reinvest into their organizations to help create a vibrant community. Valpo is already a vibrant community, so we just want to contribute to that.”